


Preparing the Expedition

by Candyoranges



Category: Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
Genre: Epistolary, Gen, Pre-"Winter Holiday"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-21 15:44:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17046395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Candyoranges/pseuds/Candyoranges
Summary: Letters from school as the Swallows and Amazons plan out their first shared winter holiday.





	Preparing the Expedition

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elennare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elennare/gifts).



~~Ruth Blackett  
\------ School~~

Nancy Blackett  
Captain of the _Amazon_

Dear Captain Nancy,

We’ve just had the most wonderful news! Mother’s going to Malta to visit Father in December – he hasn’t had a chance to really meet little Bridget since she’s become more of a tiny person than a baby. Anyway, Mother and Father decided to send the lot of us to Holly Howe for the winter holidays! I suppose it’ll be too cold to camp on the island, at least the natives would probably make a fuss. _Swallow_ and _Amazon_ will probably be up on blocks for the winter too, bother, but we managed adventures well enough this last summer when we were stuck ashore. You must tell us all about what you and Mate Peggy normally do doing the holidays. Is there lots of snow? Does the lake freeze right across? It would be jolly good fun to be able to skate back and forth between our native settlements if we can’t all camp together.

Sincerely,

John Walker  
Captain of the _Swallow_

P.S. I’ve had Susan smuggle this letter into one of hers, so you’ll probably have to reply to her or Titty. Bother these boarding school rules! I think diplomatic correspondence between fellow captains should be exempt from the rules about boys writing to girls who aren’t family. Write soon with ideas for the holiday!

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Titty Walker  
\------ School

Avast Able-seaman Titty,

Shiver my timbers! I’ve just heard the news; we’ll have to come up with some rollicking good plans for the holiday. Normally it gets quite dull with the sun down before teatime and too cold to sleep in our tents. With you lot there we’ll be sure to find something though. At the very least there’ll be skating and winter exploring.

If it snows, perhaps we could temporarily suspend our treaty of offense and defense in order to have an all-out snow fight? We could build igloos for our bases and conduct daring raids to capture each other’s igloos with a deadly torrent of snow!

Swallows and Amazons forever!

Captain Nancy,  
Amazon Pirate

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Susan Walker  
\------ School

Dear Susan,

Nancy’s just had the most capital idea! She’s been reading the meteorology reports and thinks it might be cold enough this year that the whole lake might freeze. We’ve always wanted to undertake an expedition to the North Pole during winter hols, but the last time the lake froze all the way across Mother thought we were too little and wouldn’t allow us to go by ourselves. With all six of us I think we might get permission though! Nancy wants to build sledges so we can glide down the lake eskimo-style. Since you’ve never had a chance to explore the lake’s north end at all, this will be the perfect time for the expedition.

Sincerely,  
Peggy

P.S. Oh, botheration! Before I could seal this up, Nancy came over to plan more ideas for our Arctic expedition and spilled her tea all over my desk while explaining proper dogsledding technique. (That’s the stain in the bottom corner.) Unfortunately, the tea went all over my maths work as well and Mrs. Brooks is ever so strict about neatness in one’s sums. I’ll have to re-copy it all over tonight.

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Margaret Blackett  
\------ School

Dear Peggy,

How did your maths work go? We just started studying geometric figures, and I find I much prefer straight sums. John thinks they’re easy as anything, but then he’s always liked to calculate areas and volumes and the like. I wonder whether any of this geometry will help with chart-making though? I suppose our previous charts haven’t been done all proper with a protractor and a measurement of scale. We did copy the map from the guidebook our first year though, so that one was probably correctly to scale, and that’ll be the one we use to note all the new places we explore this winter anyway.

We are very much looking forward to seeing you over the winter holidays – Titty has been reading endlessly about Arctic (and Antarctic) explorers and is very much in support of Nancy’s proposed expedition.

Sincerely,  
Susan Walker

P.S. I’ve attached a new shortbread recipe I just learned. I haven’t told Mother, but I like it even better than hers! The girls on my hall take turns baking extra treats for Sunday tea, and they were all rather complementary when I made these last week. 

P.P.S. We’ll have to plan for lots of tea and hot grog for our expedition. I have no doubt that someone is going to end up with wet feet and cold hands at some point.

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Roger Walker  
\------ School

Roger,

Did you know that Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew were stuck in Antarctica for nine months when their ship, _Endurance_ , became trapped in the ice? Eventually the ice pressed in so much it cracked the hull! The crew had to escape the polar seas in only their small lifeboats and had to wait months more for rescue!

I suppose we shan’t have this problem with our dogsleds, but maybe our poor pack of sled-dogs will all become too frozen to make the return journey and we’ll have to stay up at the North Pole for ages and ages. Of course, we couldn’t rely on rescue, so we’d have to make our way over the shifting ice on foot until we reached the dense forests of Greenland and bushwhacked our way through the frozen trees –

Oh bother, I just remembered Greenland doesn’t have any forests.

Love, Titty

P.S. I looked it up in the encyclopedia; Greenland does have a forest! It’s called Qinngua Valley, and it’s just been named a protected natural area.

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Titty Walker  
\------ School

Dear Titty,

Why’s it called Greenland if it hasn’t got any forests? I thought Iceland was the one with no trees.

Roger

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John Walker  
\------ School

John,

I’ve been reading all about the dogsleds Robert Peary used when he went to the North Pole. Are you sure we can’t procure any dogs for our polar expedition? We could huddle with them for extra warmth in the frozen tundra.

Titty

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Susan Walker  
\------ School

Dear Susan,

Have you been practicing your skating? It’s been cold enough here that the boys have all been out and gliding as soon as lessons are done. The Dean’s had to make rules against staying out skating after dark. I’ve been trying to plan ahead for our expedition; I don’t want the Amazons to think us unprepared. Have you started writing out a list of supplies we’ll need? Roger just wrote me that he’s put another hole in his woolens, so you’ll probably have to do a full inspection of the boy’s and the able-seaman’s clothes for any emergency darning before we embark. Mother and Father will never let us go all the way to the North Pole if one of us catches a cold on the first day.

I wonder if the Amazons have tried ice-fishing? We probably won’t make it down to Shark Bay again, but it’d be jolly good to be able to catch our own dinner when we’re camped at the Pole.

Sincerely,  
John

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John Walker  
Captain of the _Swallow_  
Holly Howe Farm

Captain John,

I’ve sent this direct to the natives at Holly Howe so Susan won’t have to smuggle you another letter. It’s too late to re-send it from her school to yours anyhow. Susan said you will all be arriving too late in the day for us to come visit straight away, so this letter will be waiting in our stead. 

Bother this lack of snow! Peggy and I have been back for three days and there hasn’t been a single flake. The lake isn’t anywhere close to frozen yet. Well, we’ll be able to row over the morning after you arrive at least, since the bays haven’t iced over either. Maybe we can build an igloo as our base camp while we wait for the weather to turn. Either way, the Swallows and Amazons Polar Expedition starts tomorrow!

Swallows and Amazons forever!

Nancy Blackett  
Captain of the _Amazon_

**Author's Note:**

> "Winter Holiday" has always been my favorite S&A story and seemed appropriate for a Yuletide challenge. I did want to work in some John/Nancy for you, Elennare, but it didn't really work when I settled on the timeline. They're still breaking boarding school rules to write each other though!


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